China: ‘Does Not Make Any Sense’ to Blame Beijing for North Korean Belligerence

The Chinese Foreign Ministry dismissed concerns that Beijing had influenced North Korea to be more antagonistic towards the United States in remarks Monday, stating it “does not make any sense” for China to prompt “inconsistent” responses to Washington’s diplomacy.

While Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying described criticism of China’s meddling in North Korea’s relationship with the United States as coming from an unspecified “some people,” President Donald Trump levied that exact criticism against China on Monday, speculating on Twitter that China “may be exerting negative pressure” on North Korea’s communist dictator Kim Jong-un.

Trump made similar accusations in May, noting that North Korea’s previously conciliatory tone towards the scheduled summit between Kim and Trump seemed to change overnight following Kim’s meeting with Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping in Dalian, China.

Hua insisted that China hopes to see North Korea and the United States expand their ties and work together.

“The Chinese side has been stressing that we hope that the DPRK and the US can strengthen dialogue and consultation, follow through on the consensus and outcomes of the summit in Singapore and move forward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Hua told reporters Monday.

“Just now you said that some people in the US associated the inconsistency of the statements made by the DPRK and the US after their high-level meeting with China’s role in the Korean Peninsula issue,” she noted. “I believe that it does not make any sense. China’s attitude on this issue is consistent and clear-cut. We will continue to play a positive role in and make constructive contributions to realizing the denuclearization of the Peninsula and achieving the long-lasting peace and stability of the region.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited North Korea late last week for his first overnight stay, meeting with senior North Korean officials but not Kim Jong-un. Following his meetings, Pompeo told reporters that the two sides had made progress on defining denuclearization to begin the process of ending North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program. Kim Jong-un vowed to push forward with the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” in a statement signed alongside President Trump, but never clarified what that statement meant. Some North Korean media statements have suggested that “denuclearization” would require the complete removal of American assets from Asia, as the United States is a nuclear power.

Following Pompeo’s departure last week from Pyongyang, however, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the nation’s official state news outlet, condemned the United States for its “unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization just calling for CVID, declaration and verification, all of which run counter to the spirit of the Singapore summit meeting and talks.” CVID is an acronym for “complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization,” a term used for the goal of the process of ending Libya’s nuclear weapons program.

“In the last few months, we displayed maximum patience and watched the U.S. while initiating good-will steps as many as we can,” KCNA, in a statement attributed to a spokesman for North Korea’s foreign ministry, said. “But, it seems that the U.S. misunderstood our goodwill and patience.”

Pompeo dismissed the accusations.

“If those requests were ‘gangster-like’ then the world is a gangster, because there was a unanimous decision at the U.N. Security Council about what needs to be achieved,” Pompeo told reporters in Tokyo, his next stop after Pyongyang. He repeated that the United States would not push for any sanctions relief until after North Korea proved its nuclear program no longer existed and could not be rehabilitated.

On Monday, Trump addressed the dispute on Twitter.

“I have confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake. We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea,” the president wrote. “China, on the other hand, may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade—Hope Not!”